Concerns over privacy and security in the cloud have hit fever pitch, spurred by a battle over an encrypted iPhone and ongoing worries over government access to personal information. It's up to solution providers to be the first line of defense.

While the secretive, extremely well-funded startup from SoftLayer founder Lance Crosby is currently selling direct to more than 30,000 customers, coming products will be enterprise-facing and require a channel approach.

Nutanix caused a stir on Twitter last week after holding a party in Vegas featuring scantily clad female venue staff. One of the hyper-convergence startup's top execs has vowed to quit if it happens again.

In its relentless push to remake itself as a cloud vendor, Oracle is planning to make its next major database update available only in the cloud for a time. One Oracle analyst says customers aren't going to like this.

Doron Kempel says selling hyper-convergence can be challenging for solution providers, but success will come from taking business from competitors that are unprepared or hesitant to embrace the technology.